Why was Garena Free Fire banned along with other Chinese apps? Know BGMI controversy

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Not much love was seen from India on Valentine's day for the very popular Garena Free Fire battle royale game today. The day came with some really bad news for the popular online Free Fire game. Garena Free Fire banned! Yes, indeed, you read that right. The Ministry of Home Affairs has slapped a ban on Garena Free Fire. In fact, 54 Chinese apps stand banned in India due to security threats to the country and Free Fire was listed among them. However, interestingly the game was removed from Google Play Store India before the news regarding the ban even surfaced. Garena Free Fire was removed from App Store and Google Play Store on Sunday. While it is difficult to deduce the real reason behind the removal of Free Fire, it should be mentioned that the game’s publishers were fighting a lawsuit against KRAFTON, developers of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) since last month. What is also interesting is that Garena Free Fire MAX, the premium title by the same publisher, is still available on the Play Store to be downloaded at the moment of writing this. All these developments have made the ban of Garena Free Fire a mystery. However, ostensibly, the reason for the Free Fire ban is that it has links to China and may have become a threat to security for alleged data breaches. More or less for what PUBG Mobile India was banned.

There are reasons for the doubt. First, Sea Limited, the parent company behind Garena Free Fire is Singapore-based, unlike all the other apps mentioned in the list. The founder and CEO of the company Forrest Li was born in China but had shifted to Singapore and holds a citizenship of the country. This was one of the reasons why Garena Free Fire survived the first wave of the ban in 2020. But it could